


Obscured is the Shape of the Hidden

by Solunadawn



Series: Testimony of the Old World [3]
Category: Storm Hawks
Genre: Alternate Universe, Back injury, Cyclonis mentioned, Finn mentioned, Gen, for the most part its pretty much set in the same series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 21:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14340804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solunadawn/pseuds/Solunadawn
Summary: As long as Piper could remember, Aerrow had an odd bump on his spine. She didn't care about it so much as a kid but now...Something like that can't be nothing if he spent over a year not even giving a straight answer.





	Obscured is the Shape of the Hidden

Piper was standing in Aerrow’s room looking at the owner of said room’s bare back as he sat on his bed. Whatever one would think of this scenario wasn’t even a thought on Piper’s mind. The thing buried in Aerrow’s back and had been for...pretty much since she’s known him, was.

The first time she saw it was when Aerrow, Finn and the other kids were playing in the lake of a terra they had landed on while their nomadic group was journeying away from Cyclonia’s invading forces. Aerrow had removed all but his shorts to go swimming with the other children and headed into the water, that’s when she saw it. The upper part of his spine had a distinctive shape different than the other bumps from it. It was wider, and somewhat taller than the rest of the portusions of bone and at the time Piper thought nothing of it. Aerrow just had a different bone shape, it was likely just another thing that can vary on people like hair color or body height.

When they were becoming teenagers however, it only stuck out _more_. It grew yet changed shape, not quite the weird mass it was before, but still oddly different. The big blocky like thing was refined to a rather angular jut. Very different from the rounded bone of a spinal disk’s end. It was like Aerrow was trying to be a stegosaurus but couldn’t manage to even _approach_ the cut, let alone make it. This made Piper curious. People’s bones aren't supposed to change like that are they?

Piper had tried asking Aerrow before, careful to word it as politely as possible but never got an answer from him. The first few times are when they went swimming. Piper would stop him to ask but before she could even see a response Finn would splash Aerrow, sometimes Piper too, and they’d be distracted by a water fight which made Piper forget all about it. The next few times was before Aerrow even entered the water, he would get visibly nervous and uncomfortable before awkwardly trying to escape the conversation or change the subject. She could understand being self-conscious about looks or if it was a physical problem she could understand him not wanting to have her pity him, but not even giving a simple “I don’t want to talk about it” raised more questions than it answered.

Eventually though, she had given up on the matter almost completely. Things happened, they became Storm Hawks, there were many missions leaving them busy...It practically had left her mind altogether until recently when she saw it as Aerrow was taking off his shirt to throw it in the wash. That’s when it all came back and she knew if she didn’t put her foot down and demand an answer he’d never spill.

_”Aerrow, what is that bump on your back?”_

_”Oh, uh, uhm, It’s nothing…”_

_”I would’ve believed that if this was the first time i’d asked, but i'm pretty sure its not ‘nothing’.”_

_”Piper, please--”_

_”No, don’t you ‘Piper, please’ me mister. You struggled badly to figure out what you should tell me or if you should even tell me years before. Now you’re going to tell me what this is. Important or not. Otherwise you can FORGET leaving this laundry room!”_

It didn’t take long for Aerrow to cave. He hung his head with a sigh before saying that she probably could help him now since she had crystal expertise. Piper was confused by his statement and he brought her to his room to explain.

When he was five, he had an accident. The accident resulted in him getting a crystal stabbed into his spine, something that by all rights should have killed him. It didn’t. Instead he has a crystal where one of his spinal disks used to be. Doctors couldn’t even find the fractured pieces of Aerrow’s old spinal disk.

Piper’s first words were “You expect me to believe that?”

Harsh, maybe. But with how long Aerrow’s been avoiding talking about his disk, Piper found it entirely plausible he was lying to get her off his back. Though this was his worst lie yet, it was probably on purpose to anger Piper into never wanting to bring it up again.

However, Aerrow said something that threw Piper’s theory out the window.

“You can check it if you think i'm lying. A crystal mage can tap into a crystal’s power, right?”

Piper’s glare turned into a perplexed expression. He wasn’t bluffing? This was genuine?

That moment led to this current scene with Aerrow sitting on his bed, and Piper standing in his room.

She walked over to his back and hovered her hand over the protrusion in an attempt to sense the crystal, to reach out to its presence.  
Sure enough, she did. There was a crystalline energy emitting from his back, right where the odd shape was!

“Great skies of Atmos…”, Piper whispered.

“Can you figure out what kind of crystal type it is? Since you can actually tap into it and all?”, Aerrow asked.

“Didn’t the people who saved you from those rocks find out?”, Piper questioned back.

“Nope. They said it didn’t match any of their documents, or any sightings ether. A complete mystery. Figured you’d have a better chance since your the best crystal mage I know and i’m older enough to have a better idea of what questions to ask.”, Aerrow responded.

_’Well, Cyclonis is another skilled mage but I think we’re better off **not** asking our mortal enemies for favors…’,_ Piper thought. 

“I can try and activate it, but i’m worried about what it might do to you. This thing is infused to your spinal cord! If it is a crystal type that conducts lightning, or disintegrates objects you could be….”, Piper cautioned the young Sky Knight. Aerrow gave a grateful smile. 

“Piper, don’t worry. If anything I want to make sure Cyclonia doesn’t have any possible way to use this against our team and I can’t do that if none of us knows what this is. I’d rather take one for the team than lose all of you due to my own carelessness.”, Aerrow said. “You guys are much too important to me.” 

He was being strong for all of them. Piper couldn’t deny that selflessness. She didn’t want to do this, but it would be criminally unjust to not be strong for him like he was prepared to be for them. She clenched her fists. 

“Okay...I’ll do it.”, She responded, voice slightly trembling. 

“I trust you. Don’t worry Piper.”, Aerrow assured her, calm and jovial as always. 

She put her hands to the bump on his back, readying for activation. 

“Here I go.”, She said. 

She channelled the energy using her own while she closed her eyes, attempting to set it off and unleash whatever power was hidden within. 

That’s when she felt it. Her body losing its senses. Losing its place. Just her energy was all that existed. Then it came in a massive wave. A plethora of consciousnesses all overtaking her mind in a scream of emotions, all of them chanting the same universal tune. 

****《 G E T O U T 》** **

Piper felt her entire existence being forced out of its presence as if it was a tsunami smashing a rowboat into the ground of land and she was back, her senses were back as she went flying back into the wall of Aerrow’s room and falling to the ground. 

She was breathing heavy, her body coated in sweat. What was that? Where did it come from? Piper looked up. 

Aerrow had fallen forward onto his bed, limp. Piper sprung into a panic as she rushed over to her redheaded friend. 

“Aerrow?! Aerrow!! Answer me!”, She shouted at him as she grabbed his shoulders and flipped him over. 

She was worried, terrified that whatever she encountered might have cut off his spinal cord out of anger. That he might’ve lost his life because of her intrusion. That’s when Piper noticed Aerrow’s chest rising and falling. 

He fell unconscious. 

Piper let out a sigh of relief as she removed herself to sit on the floor. In all her time as a crystal mage, not once has she ever experienced a phenomenon like this. 

She put Aerrow in his bed properly with his body under the blankets and his head on the pillow. Whatever it was, it’s letting him live and she was fine just knowing that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Going to try for making a series of stories with this. No guarantee it'll get completed in the end though.


End file.
